4-star generals, admirals serving from JFK to Obama say Los Angeles ICE protests don't warrant deployment of Guard
Source: Law & Crime
Jun 16th, 2025, 2:26 pm
Ahead of a Zoom hearing scheduled for Tuesday at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a group of retired four-star generals and admirals who served under presidents ranging from John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama filed court documents warning that President Donald Trump’s federalization of the California National Guard and deployment of U.S. Marines poses “potentially grave risk of irreparable harm.”
Seeking the appellate court’s leave to file a brief and enter the case as amici curiae — Latin for “friends of the court” — the retired generals, admirals, and former U.S. Army and Navy secretaries did not explicitly take Gov. Gavin Newsom’s side in the case. They did suggest Sunday, however, that the Trump administration’s bid for an emergency stay of a lower-court ruling and continued push to quell “violent riots” in Los Angeles amid nationwide “No Kings” protests over ICE raids may not pass legal muster when compared to historical precedents.
The overarching points of retired Admirals Steve Abbot, Thad Allen, Samuel Jones Locklear III, and Bill Owens, retired Generals Walton W. Fulford, Jr., Michael Hayden, former Army Secretary Louis Caldera, and former Navy Secretary Sean O’Keefe, are that the deployments of the National Guard and Marines in a domestic law enforcement context distracts from the military’s core mission, creates risks to troops and the public by placing military members in a setting they are not adequately trained for, and risks politicization of the military when not done as a “last resort” — potentially harming “recruitment, retention, morale, and cohesion of the force.”
In the federal district court ruling — which is currently under an administrative stay — Judge Charles Breyer, the brother of retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, ruled that Trump’s deployment of the National Guard against Newsom’s wishes was “illegal” and violated the Constitution.
Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/different-in-kind-4-star-generals-admirals-serving-from-jfk-to-obama-say-los-angeles-ice-protests-dont-warrant-deployment-of-national-guard-to-california/
Full headline: ‘Different in kind’: 4-star generals, admirals serving from JFK to Obama say Los Angeles ICE protests don’t warrant deployment of National Guard to California
Link to BRIEF (PDF viewer) - https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25976497-amici-generals-and-admirals/
Link to BRIEF (PDF) - https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25976497/amici-generals-and-admirals.pdf
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